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Happy birthday to Hank Gowdy

By: Linda Deitch

The Columbus Dispatch - January 27, 2011 02:23 AM

FILE PHOTO

Henry Morgan "Hank" Gowdy, a Columbus native, was the first Major League Baseball player to enlist in World War I and the only one to serve in both world wars. He was a catcher who hit .270 over 16 seasons. The photo above shows him playing in the Army in Sommercourt, France, during WWI.

Gowdy led the 1914 "Miracle Braves" of Boston from last place (on the Fourth of July) to the pennant and a sweep of the World Series against the heavily favored Philadelphia Athletics. He was a star hitter who hit .545 in the Series with five extra-base hits and three RBIs.

He was born in Columbus 121 years ago today, on Aug. 24, 1889. He played football, basketball and baseball at Hubbard Elementary and North High School. Throughout his decades in baseball as a player and coach, he always called Columbus home and resided here in the off season.

His major league debut was as a first baseman for the New York Giants in 1910, and he was traded to Boston the next year. In 1914, he became Boston's regular catcher.

Gowdy signed up in June 1917, was a national hero, and saw action in France with the Ohio National Guard. When he returned in 1919, he got his old job as a catcher back. Four years later, he was traded back to the Giants, where he played in the 1923 and 1924 World Series.

IN A 1999 DISPATCH ARTICLE about the athletes, coaches and sports personalities who helped shape Columbus' sports century, we reported:

Gowdy found himself on the wrong end of World Series attention in one of the most bizarre games in history. In the seventh and final game of the '24 Series between the Giants and the Washington Senators, the teams entered the bottom of the 12th inning with the score tied at 3.

Muddy Ruel of the Senators hit a pop fly near home plate -- seemingly an easy play for Gowdy. The wind shifted the ball's flight though, and when Gowdy took a step toward where the ball would drop he stepped in his catcher's mask, which he had tossed off to chase the fly.

Unable to shake free of the mask -- "It held me like a bear trap," he would later say -- Gowdy watched the ball drop in foul territory.

Given new life, Ruel hit a double and scored moments later when a ground ball hopped over the head of Giants third baseman Fred Lindstrom, giving the Senators a 4-3 win and their only world title.

In 1925, the Giants released him. He was manager of the old Columbus Senators in 1926. He later made a comeback with the Braves, but with limited playing time. He then became a coach with the Giants, Braves and Reds.

When the United States entered World War II, Gowdy enlisted again at age 53 and was promoted to major. In 1944, he returned to Fort Benning, Ga., where he served as Chief Athletic Officer. (The baseball field at Fort Benning is named "Gowdy Field.") He returned to coaching in 1946 with the Reds. By 1948, he had retired from baseball.

The Dispatch has reported that Gowdy came back to Columbus in 1950. He headed up the Columbus Youth Foundation, and his trademark was a big cigar in his mouth.

Hank Gowdy died in Columbus at age 76 and is buried in Union Cemetery.

FILE PHOTO

In this 1957 photo, Hank Gowdy, in charge of tryout sessions at Jet Stadium (later known as Cooper Stadium), discusses a few pointers with (left) Stan Ebert of Grove City, Tom Miller of Dublin and (right) Roger Remlinger of Prospect.

About Columbus' Gowdy Field

On the site of Gowdy Field -- a 25-acre parcel named to honor Hank -- sit two flashy new buildings, the Time Warner regional headquarters and Ohio State University's Eye and Ear Institute. These can be seen on the west side of 315 North as you leave Downtown.

The JamesCare Comprehensive Breast Health Center is also being built on the site.

Decades ago, the Godman Guild used it as a community garden to provide food to approximately 250 poor families before and after the Great Depression.

From the mid-1940s, the site, known as Goodale Field, featured more than 20 baseball diamonds.

In 1952, the Columbus City Council renamed it Gowdy Field, and in 1964, passed a resolution allowing the city’s service department to use the site as a landfill. It was then filled with construction debris and trash for about two decades. It was later covered in dirt and became a neglected weedlot, sitting vacant until 2005.

The 1964 resolution allowing dumping on the ball diamonds required that the playing fields be restored once the garbage had piled up high enough to meet the road level, but no new ballfields materialized.

The City of Columbus determined that the best use for Gowdy Field would not be as a recreational site, but as commercial office space with tax-generating jobs.

Its renewal is recognized nationally as a cutting-edge landfill redevelopment project.

In addition, Fire Station 25 on W. 3rd Avenue in Columbus is known as the Henry "Hank" Gowdy Fire Station.